11:00 AMNarita International Airport
Transport4.3
Pick up your JR Pass and a Suica here, and post your big bag ahead if you're going to Hakone.
Like this trip? Make it yours — change anything, add your own places.
Planning board
Est. budget ~$200 / person1
Day 1 · Sat, Oct 3
4 stops64.1 km6h planned~833 min walk
11:00 AM
2:30 PMShinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Activities4.6
The right first stop with jet lag — big, calm, and outdoors. Closes early, last entry 16:00.
4:30 PMTokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Activities4.5
Free observation deck, 202m. On a clear evening you get Fuji.
6:30 PMOmoide Yokocho Memory Lane
Food & Drink4.2
Yakitori and beer standing up. Stay awake until nine and the jet lag halves.
2
Day 2 · Sun, Oct 4
6 stops2.8 km6h 45m planned~36 min walk~$30
9:00 AMMeiji Jingu
Activities4.6
Start in the forest before the city switches on. Sunday mornings you may catch a wedding.
11:00 AMTakeshita Street
Activities
Loud, pink, packed. Then walk south to Omotesando for the opposite of it.
12:15 PM
3:00 PMShibuya Crossing
Activities4.5
Cross it once at street level, then watch from the Starbucks window. Mornings are calmer.
4:00 PM
7:00 PMUobei Shibuya Dogenzaka Store
Food & Drink4.3$
Touchscreen sushi on a rail. Cheap enough to over-order.
3
Day 3 · Mon, Oct 5
6 stops9.3 km9h 30m planned~121 min walk~$155
8:30 AMSensō-ji
Activities4.6
Early is the whole trick. Nakamise-dori on the way out once the stalls open.
10:30 AMNakamise Shopping Street
Activities4.3
The approach to Senso-ji, lined with snack stalls. Melonpan and ningyo-yaki.
12:00 PMAsakusa Imahan
Food & Drink4.5$$$$
Sukiyaki at a lunch price. Book a tatami room if there are more than two of you.
1:45 PMAkihabara Electric Town
Activities
Retro games on the upper floors of Super Potato, then Mandarake for everything else.
4:15 PMKanda Matsuya
Food & Drink4.3$$
Soba worth crossing town for. Cash, no reservations, closes early.
6:30 PMteamLab Planets TOKYO DMM
Activities4.5
Barefoot, through water, into mirrors. Wear shorts you can roll up. Timed entry, book ahead.
4
Day 4 · Tue, Oct 6
5 stops16.7 km8h planned~217 min walk
9:00 AMHakonetozan Line
Transport
Switchback train up the mountain. Get the Hakone Free Pass at Odawara — it covers the whole loop.
11:00 AMThe Hakone Open-Air Museum
Activities4.5
Sculpture on a hillside with a Picasso pavilion. Free foot bath at the far end.
1:15 PMHakone Gyoza Center
Food & Drink4.1
Twelve kinds of handmade gyoza two stops from the Open-Air Museum. The mountain lunch this day was missing.
2:45 PMHakone Shrine
Activities4.4
The torii standing in the lake. Queue for the photo or walk up to the shrine instead.
5:00 PMTenzan Onsen
Activities4.4
Rotenburo pools in the forest, tattoo-friendly. Dinner after is your ryokan's kaiseki — that is the point of tonight.
5
Day 5 · Wed, Oct 7
4 stops312 km7h 30m planned~4056 min walk
9:00 AMOdawara Station
Transport4.0
Hakone Free Pass ends here. Forward your bags, grab an ekiben, and ride the Hikari to Kyoto — two hours, Fuji side on the right.
1:30 PMNishiki Market
Food & Drink4.3
Five blocks of pickles, tamago, skewers. Eat standing at the stall; walking and eating is rude.
6:00 PMPontocho Alley
Food & Drink4.5
One-lane alley of restaurants along the river. Look for places with an English menu posted outside.
3:30 PMTeramachi & Shinkyogoku Arcades
Activities3.5
Check in, drop the bags, then drift the covered arcades — Nishiki spits you straight into them. Decompression time, on purpose.
6
Day 6 · Thu, Oct 8
7 stops11.5 km7h 30m planned~150 min walk~$15
8:00 AMArashiyama Bamboo Forest
Activities4.4
Before nine or don't bother. It's ten minutes long and it will be full by ten.
9:15 AMTenryu-ji
Activities4.5
The garden is 700 years old and unchanged. Buy the garden-only ticket and skip the halls.
10:45 AM% ARABICA Kyoto Arashiyama
Food & Drink4.2$
Coffee on the river with a queue. Worth it once, mostly for where you drink it.
11:30 AMArashiyama Yoshimura
Food & Drink4.2
Handmade soba with a window seat over the Togetsukyo bridge. Book nothing; just put your name in before the temple crowd thinks of it.
12:45 PMArashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama
Activities4.5
Twenty-minute climb to macaques and the best view of Kyoto. Don't make eye contact.
4:00 PMKinkaku-ji
Activities4.6
The golden pavilion. One loop, one photo, out — the path is one-way and moves fast.
6:30 PMKatsukura
Food & Drink4.5
Grind-your-own-sesame tonkatsu on Sanjo — the downtown dinner after Kinkaku-ji, and the line moves faster than it looks.
7
Day 7 · Fri, Oct 9
7 stops4.8 km9h 15m planned~62 min walk
7:30 AMFushimi Inari Taisha
Activities4.6
Go at 7:30 — grab conbini onigiri on the way, nothing else opens this early. Climb to the Yotsutsuji overlook; the summit adds an hour for less payoff.
10:30 AMKiyomizu-dera
Activities4.6
Wooden stage over the hillside, built without nails. Early again — this one gets very full.
12:00 PMSannenzaka
Activities4.4
Stone-stepped lanes down from the temple. Preserved streets, so no eating while walking.
1:15 PMHisago
Food & Drink4.1
The oyakodon everyone queues for, tucked between Kodai-ji and Yasaka. Cash, fast-moving line, worth it.
2:30 PMYasaka Shrine
Activities4.4
Lanterns and food stalls where Higashiyama meets Gion.
4:30 PMGion
Activities
Walk Hanamikoji at dusk. Photographing geiko on the private lanes is banned and fined.
6:45 PMIssen Yoshoku
Food & Drink4.4
One dish, done since forever — Kyoto's original okonomiyaki in a gloriously weird Gion room. The casual dinner after geisha-spotting.
8
Day 8 · Sat, Oct 10
5 stops40.2 km6h 15m planned~523 min walk
10:00 AMNara Park
Activities4.6
Forty-five minutes from Kyoto. The deer bow for crackers and will absolutely mug you for them.
12:15 PMTōdai-ji
Activities4.7
The Great Buddha in the largest wooden building you'll stand in. The scale doesn't photograph.
1:45 PMMizuya Chaya
Food & Drink4.7
A thatched tea house in the forest between Tōdai-ji and Kasuga — udon and warabi-mochi among the deer. Lunch without leaving the park.
2:45 PMKasugataisha Shrine
Activities4.5
Three thousand stone lanterns through the forest. The walk there is the good part.
6:30 PMMenbaka Fire Ramen
Food & Drink4.2
The ramen they set on fire in front of you. Pure theater, genuinely good broth — the right energy after a day of temples and deer.
9
Day 9 · Sun, Oct 11
5 stops45.6 km8h 15m planned~593 min walk
9:30 AMKyoto Station
Transport4.3
Special Rapid to Osaka, half an hour. Drop bags at the hotel before you go anywhere.
11:00 AMOsaka Castle
Activities4.4
The park beats the reconstructed keep. Go up only if the queue is short.
3:00 PMShinsekai
Food & Drink4.1
Retro Osaka under the Tsutenkaku tower — kushikatsu counters and neon. Late lunch here, then the main event at Dotonbori.
6:00 PMDotonbori
Food & Drink
Neon, the Glico sign, takoyaki and kushikatsu. Never double-dip the sauce — that's the one rule.
8:30 PMHozenji Yokocho
Other4.3
Stone-paved alley one street off the chaos. Moss-covered statue, tiny bars, no neon.
10
Day 10 · Mon, Oct 12
3 stops42.9 km4h 30m planned~558 min walk
9:00 AMKuromon Market
Food & Drink4.1
Osaka's kitchen. Scallops, wagyu skewers, fruit that costs more than lunch.
11:30 AMUmeda Sky Building
Activities4.4
Floating garden observatory between two towers. The escalator through mid-air is the ride.
3:00 PMKansai International Airport
Transport4.1
Haruka express from Osaka Station, about an hour. Be there three hours before an international flight.